


the worst case of jealous pining

by thestarsaretalking



Series: i think it's finally safe for me to fall [1]
Category: Space Force (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Jealousy, M/M, Pining, flirting thru texts about stars and movies because they're nerds <3, tony gives chan flowers its really cute they're so in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25957906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestarsaretalking/pseuds/thestarsaretalking
Summary: Chan starts talking to F. Tony and takes his time to sort out his feelings (ft. Angela being a great friend and Tony being a hopeless romantic who accidentally slips up)
Relationships: Angela Ali & Chan Kaifang, Chan Kaifang & F. Tony Scarapiducci, Chan Kaifang/F. Tony Scarapiducci
Series: i think it's finally safe for me to fall [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1884013
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29





	the worst case of jealous pining

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is dedicated to my dear friend lia on twitter thanks for crying about chantony with me i couldn't have done this without ur support :)

Chan and Tony’s unlikely friendship began the day they came up with a present for the POTUS together. If they hadn’t come up with a brilliant idea to name a star after the president, Chan would have never known that Tony was genuinely interested in stars. Tony was so excited to learn about the star they named after the president that Chan decided to start leaving post-it notes on Tony’s desk with information about stars every day. 

Chan almost felt like it was his duty to foster Tony’s interest in stars because Chan hadn’t met a non-scientist who was as enthusiastic about stars as Tony was. On some days, Chan doodled little drawings on the post-its to show Tony what the stars looked like, and on others, he added encouraging messages such as “Hope you have a good day today!” before signing off with “- Chan :)”.

He left these post-its on Tony’s desk every morning and they were always gone when Chan came into Tony’s office the next morning with a new post-it, so he knew that Tony picked up the post-it notes. However, Chan had no way of knowing whether Tony actually read them or not. For all he knew, Tony could have been throwing the post-its into the trash without even reading them. 

One day, when Chan and Angela were sitting in front of the monitors in the control center, Angela pulled up Space Force’s Twitter account on her phone and handed it to Chan. Chan stared at Angela’s phone blankly. “Uh, what exactly am I supposed to be looking at?” 

Angela reached over to scroll down on the page so Chan could see the account’s recent tweets. “Read the latest tweets.” 

Chan slowly scrolled through the tweets as he read them over and his mouth fell open slightly when he realized the most recent tweets were all about the stars that Chan had mentioned on the post-it notes he gave to Tony. As Chan broke into a smile and handed Angela her phone, he asked, “How did you know I’m responsible for this?” 

Angela gave the scientist an incredulous look. “Tony clearly doesn’t have the mental capacity to research information about stars. I’d be surprised if he knows the order of planets in the solar system. Plus, I see you go into his office in the mornings so I figured that you’re the one behind these tweets.” 

Chan pushed his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose, and his smile widened. Tony did read the post-its after all. 

Knowing that his post-it notes weren’t going to waste, Chan decided to make a bold move. The next day, he wrote some information about a newly discovered star on a post-it note like he always did. He decided to include his phone number on the bottom of the post-it and added a note: “Here’s my number. Feel free to text me any questions you have about stars!” He had high hopes that Tony would take the hint. 

Surely enough, later that afternoon, Chan received a text message that said “would it make sense to use the word gas giant as an insult?” 

Chan quickly responded with, “do you mean scientifically or intellectually?” 

Tony texted back, “scientifically, obviously” and Chan had to cover his mouth with a hand so none of the other scientists in the laboratory could see his grin. 

Over the days following Tony’s first text to Chan, the two boys became closer than ever. Even though Chan no longer left daily post-it notes on Tony’s desk, he still introduced new starts to Tony through text, though most of their conversations about stars consisted of Chan offering meaningful information and Tony trying to make connections between the shape of stars and cartoon characters. 

Their conversations eventually shifted away from stars and towards their personal lives. Sometimes, Tony would ask Chan what he was up to and Chan would tell him about the anime he was currently watching. Other times, Chan would ask Tony for movie suggestions and Tony happily listed his favorite movies. Chan watched a few of the movies Tony had recommended, but he was only half-paying attention while watching because he was occupied with texting Tony his live reactions to the film.

While teaching Angela botany on a Monday afternoon, Chan kept looking at his phone and stopping in the middle of talking about plants to text a reply to Tony. About ten minutes into the lesson, Angela got fed up with Chan’s obvious attachment to his phone and snatched it out of his hands when he was in the middle of writing a text to Tony about how coming-of-age movies are heavily overrated.

“Angela, give me my phone!” Chan reached across the table, unsuccessfully attempting to grab his phone back. Angela twisted around so she could read Chan’s text messages without giving him the chance to reach his phone.

“I’m paying you to teach me about space plants. I’m not paying you to flirt with…” Angela trailed off briefly as she brought Chan’s phone closer to her face to read the name at the top of the screen, “Fuck Tony? You’ve been texting this whole time? Have you asked him out yet?”

Angela was the only person who knew about Chan’s developing feelings for Tony. Chan hadn’t planned to tell Angela but when he and Angela walked past Tony, Angela noticed the way Chan gazed after the overzealous media consultant, she lovingly bullied Chan into admitting that he really liked Tony.

“No, I haven’t asked him out,” Chan shook his head, blushing with embarrassment. “But I did tell him about the Cassiopeia constellation, which is by far the most romantic constellation out there, so I’m pretty sure he kind of knows-” 

Angela cut him off before he could try to reason his way out of the situation. As she handed Chan’s phone back to him, she scoffed, “You nerd! How are you good at helping spaceships land on the moon but terrible at landing a date with a guy who’s obviously also into you? I mean, if he didn’t like you a lot, I don’t think he would be texting you every ten minutes.” 

“I’m just nervous, okay? I’ll figure a way to ask him out eventually,” Chan sheepishly responded as he put his phone in the pocket of his white lab coat. 

Groaning, Angela brought a hand up to her forehead as if to soothe an incoming headache. “Please do it soon. I’ve been resisting the urge to slap the shit out of him only because you like him. I don’t know if I can do this for much longer.” 

Chan frowned and gave Angela a confused look. “Wait, if I do end up going out with him, wouldn’t that make resisting the urge to slap him worse?” 

“Can we please get back to studying? The more we talk about not slapping Tony, the more I want to do it.” 

Chan nodded, more than willing to change the subject, and went back to explaining the function of the mitochondria. Yet, as Chan talked about how the mitochondria are essentially the powerhouse of the cell, Tony was still on his mind. 

~

About a week after Chan and Tony started texting each other, Tony decided to surprise Chan. Chan was working at the lab when he heard Tony waltz into the lab and call his name. “Dr. Chan!”

Chan set his pipette down and turned around. “Tony, what are you-” 

Before Chan could finish asking his question, Tony handed him a bundle of peonies and said, “I know you really like plants, and flowers are technically plants, I think, so I got you these flowers.” 

Chan smiled as he looked down at the bundle of pink flowers in his hands as Tony anxiously rambled on, “I didn’t know what type of flowers you like and I don’t know the science-y name for them but these flowers are really pretty and I thought you might like them.” 

“They’re perfect. Thank you. Also, the scientific name for peonies is Paeonia. It’s not as complicated as the scientific names for some other flowers,” Chan informed lightheartedly, pulling the bundle of flowers closer to his chest.

“Of course you would know the scientific name,” Tony teased, his grin matching Chan’s. He plucked a flower out of the bundle and tucked it behind Chan’s ear before quickly snapping a picture of Chan with the flower in his hair.

“Did you seriously just get me flowers just so you could take that picture of me?” Chan tried to fake a glare but failed as he was too overwhelmed with affection to even pretend to be upset.

“Nope, the picture was just a bonus. Anyway, I gotta blast before I get in trouble for not being at a press conference right now. I hope you enjoy the flowers. See you around!” Tony pressed a brief kiss on Chan’s cheek before he sprinted out of the laboratory. Chan brought his hand up to where Tony had kissed him and let his hand linger there as he watched Tony leave. 

Chan’s encounter with Tony had brightened his mood for the rest of the day. Later that day, Dr. Mallory stopped by the lab to check in on Chan and he pointed out the flower tucked behind Chan’s ear. “You have a pink flower in your hair.”

Although he was normally defensive, Chan simply nodded and smiled. “I know.” 

He brushed off Mallory’s point quickly, assuming that Mallory was just surprised to see Chan being so bold, but the next day, Mallory intercepted Chan when Chan was walking to the control center. “Dr. Chan.” 

“Dr. Mallory, hey. What’s up?” Chan faced the head scientist, clearly puzzled by Mallory’s behavior. 

“Fuck Tony gave you flowers yesterday, right?” 

Chan became even more perplexed. He hadn’t expected Mallory to randomly mention Tony. “Uh, yeah. How’d you know?”

“I saw him with the flowers yesterday and I saw the flower in your hair later on so I put two and two together,” Mallory answered as he wrung his hands together. “I just wanted to let you know that I saw Tony kissing Hannah, the PR agent for a tech entrepreneur, the day before he gave you the flowers.”

Chan’s perplexed expression was abruptly replaced with one of alarm. “What?” 

“Yeah, I just thought you should know. Good luck with Tony.” Mallory gave Chan a grim smile and patted him on his back before leaving.

At first, Chan was bewildered. Why would Tony kiss somebody and then kiss Chan on the cheek the next day? Did that mean that cheek kiss was platonic? And was Tony actually dating Hannah? 

Chan’s confusion morphed into resentment as the questions in his head grew more accusatory. Was Tony a player who just wanted to mess with Chan for the fun of it? Was Tony intentionally leading him on? Did he even have feelings for Chan? 

These questions and the general uncertainty surrounding Tony and Chan’s relationship drove Chan to start distancing himself from Tony for the sake of protecting his feelings (he wasn’t the best at processing or dealing with his emotions). He tried to convince himself that Tony, with his unpredictable behavior, wouldn’t make a good boyfriend and ghosted him by ignoring his texts. Plus, Chan cared too much about Tony and if he kept feeling so strongly for Tony, he would let his emotions get the best of him.

But no matter how hard Chan tried to convince himself to assume the worst about Tony, he still believed that Tony was a kind-hearted person who couldn’t hurt anybody if he tried. After all, he thought the Orion constellation looked like Hawkeye and Chan couldn’t possibly villainize somebody like that. 

Chan expected Tony to notice the shift in his behavior but he had no clue that Tony had resorted to pestering Angela in order to find out why he was ghosting him. Angela brought this up when she and Chan were having lunch together.

“Tony’s been asking me about you, like, every day. Is everything okay between you two? I thought things between you guys were going well.” Angela sounded genuinely concerned and Chan sighed. 

“Dr. Mallory told me that he saw Tony kissing a girl and I kind of freaked out and distanced myself,” explained Chan as he looked down at the table. 

Angela frowned and leaned both of her elbows on the table. “Hm, that’s weird. Have you tried asking him about it?” 

Her question made Chan realize that he had been hit with the worst case of jealous pining and he grimaced slightly. “No, but if I try, my feelings are going to burst out of me and I’m not used to caring this much about someone.”

Looking over Chan’s shoulder, Angela raised her eyebrows and responded, “Well, you’re gonna have to talk about it with him because Fuck Tony is walking over right now.” 

Chan swore under his breath as he heard Tony’s voice. “Chan! Captain Ali! So glad to see you guys here. Angela, could I borrow Chan for a sec?” 

Angela stood up and gestured to her seat. “He’s all yours.” 

“Perfect! Thank you so much,” Tony gleefully quipped as he sat down in the empty chair across the table from Chan. 

Chan gave Angela a desperate look, silently begging her to stay and help him escape, but she pointedly glanced at Tony to tell Chan that he had to sort the situation out by himself and walked away.

Once Angela was out of earshot, Tony pouted and asked, “Chan, why have you been ghosting me? What did I do?”

“You know what you did,” Chan replied vaguely as he crossed his arms, leaned back into his chair, and glared at Tony. Honestly, he found it difficult to stay mad at Tony when Tony was sitting in front of him with a wounded expression, but annoyance and anger were the only defense mechanisms Chan had when it came to dealing with overwhelming emotions. 

“No, I don’t. Was it because I told you to watch Inception? I should’ve warned you that it’s really trippy.” 

“No, it’s not because of Inception, even though that movie fucked me up for a few days,” Chan mused before his voice hardened. “It’s because you gave me flowers and flirted with me the day after you kissed Hannah. You even kissed me on the cheek. Was that supposed to be a romantic kiss? Are my feelings a game to you?” 

Tony placed his hands down on the table and frowned as he insisted, “The kiss with Hannah didn’t mean anything, I swear.”

“You don’t have to pretend to care about me if you don’t. I’m an adult. I can handle rejection,” Chan retorted, once again assuming the worst. He was prepared to leave and end the conversation but Tony put his hands on Chan’s and Chan froze.

“Listen, Chan. I promise I don’t have any feelings for her. That kiss was a mistake, like the latest Star Wars movie. It never should’ve been done. Hannah means nothing to me,” Tony promised earnestly. Chan’s face grew warm as he felt Tony’s hands squeeze his hands comfortingly. “I really like you a lot, Chan. I love learning about plants and stars and Cassidella-” 

“Cassiopeia,” Chan corrected, a smile inching across his face. 

“That, yes. Chan, you’re the only person I have eyes for, and I’m sorry I’ve been too much of a coward to let you know exactly how I feel. So, would you be willing to go on a date with me?” 

Whatever was left of the grudge Chan held against Tony disappeared as Chan caved, “Okay, I believe you. I’ll go out on a date with you.” 

Tony whooped victoriously and leaned over across the table to press a kiss to Chan’s cheek. As he stood up and slowly backed away, Tony pointed at Chan and said, “That was a romantic kiss, by the way.” 

Chan grinned, “Of course it was.” 

When Angela came back, she saw that Chan had a dreamy expression on his face and instantly knew that he and Tony had finally figured everything out. As Angela sat down, she stated, “Looks like he finally asked you out. Does this mean I can slap him now?” 

“Angela, don’t ruin the moment,” Chan pleaded jokingly as he watched Tony walk away. Maybe there was a chance that this could work out after all.

**Author's Note:**

> this my first foray into writing chantony!! i love this ship so much and be prepared to see me upload a bunch of chantony fics over the next few months!! and yeah my favorite trope to write is jealous pining and what about it??


End file.
